


Angel With a Broken Wing

by Cartecka



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 08:54:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8705848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cartecka/pseuds/Cartecka
Summary: End of 2x08. Kara thanks Lena for her help.





	

Kara has to be sure. She sees J’onn standing in front of her unharmed, but she has to be sure that everyone else is okay. She takes off before J’onn can say another word and sweeps the city. She goes to all of the places she knows she will find aliens and she breaks her own rule about using x-ray vision to see into other people’s homes. They’re all alive. There doesn’t seem to be a single dead or injured alien in town. She thinks about the missile. Thinks about how it detonated in her hands. She thinks about the fear, about how scared she was that she had failed to save another planet. She thinks about J’onn safe and M’gann and all of the other aliens.

The relief in her chest is so strong that it borders on painful and Kara kind of wants to cry but she doesn’t and instead rejoins J’onn back at the docks. The police are there.

“Did you call them?” Kara asks.

“No.”

Kara turns around and watches as they handcuff Lillian and it all clicks.

Lena.

Lena Luthor had, on her own, saved an entire city. Lena had betrayed her mother, the last family she had, to save countless lives.

She’s not on the docks anymore, apparently having left as soon as her mother was in cuffs.

“J’onn. It was Lena. She must have switched the isotope. She tricked her mother.”

J’onn looks surprised but Kara isn’t. This is less surprising than Lena turning the key on the rocket launcher had been. It’s less surprising than Lena telling her to leave her office. This… This makes sense to Kara because she had seen it. She saw the goodness in Lena. Behind the pain and the guilt, Kara saw goodness.

Kara takes off and flies straight to L-Corp. She can see the destruction her fight with Hank had left in the courtyard and lobby and she feels bad. How many times will Lena’s company, her name, be trashed because of her family? How many more times can she take it?

Lena is in her office even though it’s late, even though she just went through a hell of an ordeal, even though she must be exhausted. Kara admires her all the more for it. She takes Lena’s advice this time and, instead of coming in through the window, she knocks on the door.

“Come in,” Lena says.

Lena looks at her and Kara is struck by how vulnerable she looks.

“I’m sorry,” Lena says and it stops Kara in her tracks. She can’t fathom what Lena could possibly be apologizing for.

“For what?”

“Oh, just my family. Always making a mess. I really am sorry for what my mother did. If I’d known, I would have stopped her sooner,” Lena says and she speaks quickly, nearly tripping over her words.

“You- you have nothing to apologize for,” Kara says and she doesn’t realize until Lena flinches how angrily it came out.

But Kara is angry. She’s angry at Lex and at Lillian for doing what they did. She’s angry at everyone who projected their actions onto Lena, who had never done anything wrong. She’s angry at herself for doubting her even for a second. She’s a little bit angry at Lena for pushing her away instead of asking for her help. But only a little bit. Mostly, she’s so, so grateful.

She steps forward quickly and pulls Lena into a hug. Lena seems startled at first because she doesn’t react and when she does it’s cautious, as if she doesn’t quite believe that Supergirl could be grateful.

“Thank you,” Kara says softly. “You saved National City and probably the world. You saved at least half of the people I care about. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

Only then does Lena relax into Kara’s arms and return the hug. It feels good to hold her. Alex always says that Kara is a bad judge of character because she likes to see the good in people and it’s true that her unwillingness to see people in a negative light has gotten her in trouble before. But Kara likes to think that she is good at reading people. And she’s seen the loneliness in Lena’s eyes. She’s seen her fear and her guilt and the way it would eat her up from the inside. Behind her perfectly manicured appearance and her polite smile, Lena always hides how sad she is.

Kara wonders what it must have been like to have no one. Because even when Kara was at her worst she had Eliza and Alex and Winn and James and Clark, and Kara has never been truly alone even if she’s felt it sometimes. She can’t imagine what Lena must feel. So she holds her because that's the only way she knows how to make it better even if its only a little bit and even if its only temporary.

“I’m sorry I lied to you,” Lena says, pulling away.

“It’s okay. I understand why you did. You could have told me, though,” Kara says. “If she’d figured out what you were doing, she could have killed you.”

“A price I am willing to pay.”

“You shouldn’t be,” Kara says softly. “You like to put yourself in danger don’t you? The gala and now this? You should value your life more.”

“I do value my life,” Lena says. “But I value the lives of others more and if I can save hundreds of lives at the price of mine, why shouldn’t I? You do the same don’t you?”

Kara lets out a sigh and shakes her head.

“I suppose. Next time… just ask for help first. Giving up your life should always be last resort.”

“I’m not dead though.”

“Yeah, because J’onn and I came in enough time to deal with the cyborg. If he had still been around when your mother realized you betrayed her, I’m not so sure you still would be.”

Lena takes a shuddering breath.

“You may be right. I suppose next time…. we could work together.”

“A Luthor and a Super working together,” Kara says and she’s overjoyed when Lena lets out a little laugh.

“Yeah, I could get used to this,” Lena says.

Kara nods and silence falls between them. Realizing that she really has nothing more to say, turns to leave.

“You know, when you told me that my mother worked for Cadmus, I didn’t believe you,” Lena says.

Kara turns back to her.

“You see, I’ve always known my mother was not… shall we say nice. She’s always been stringent and tough and she never loved me. I never really thought she was capable of loving anyone other than Lex. Which is why I never believed that she would care enough to create and lead Cadmus. If she was worried about an alien threat, she would protect herself and Lex, the rest of the world be damned. Clearly I didn’t know her as well as I thought.”

Lena pauses as if to gather herself and the next words come out of her mouth like they are daggers.

“I thought, at first, that you were simply assuming that, because her last name was Luthor she must therefore be a threat. And I was hurt because I thought that we had moved past that. But what you said about me, that you believed in me, that I was smart and good and… what I’m trying to say is no one has ever said that about me.”

It’s heartbreaking the way Lena’s voice cracks.

“I wasn’t lying,” Kara says.

“I know, Kara. You’re a terrible liar after all.”

Kara sucks in a surprised breath.

“You… you knew?” Kara said. “Since when?”

“Practically since we met… I mean, I had my suspicions at the renaming ceremony when you disappeared as soon as the explosions happened. And then you told me that you flew to my office… on a bus.”

Kara laughs nervously. Alex is going to be livid when she finds out. Kara really needs to get better at the whole lying and deception thing. 

“I’m sorry for lying. It wasn’t because you’re a Luthor, I promise. Only a handful of people know and…”

“Shhh, it’s okay Kara. I understand. Sometimes I wish I could be anonymous. Disappear and go off and be nobody. It’s unfortunately not that easy.”

“I’m still sorry. I hate lying to people I care about.”

Lena looked down at her hands and Kara was startled to see that they were trembling.

“Kara, right now, you are the most important person in my life. I just need you to know that.”

“You’re important to me too,” Kara says softly and she steps forward and hugs Lena again. She’s still surprised by how good it feels to just hold the other woman comfortably in her arms. Lena hugs back tentatively and then pulls away but only just enough so that she can look Kara in the eyes.

“I… Please forgive me,” Lena says.

“What for?”

Instead of answering, Lena kisses her.

It’s the second time in as many days that Kara is being kissed out of the blue by one of her friends, but this time she doesn’t think she minds. It had been weird with Mon-El because he had been dying, still was dying, and because, to Kara, he was just a friend. A good friend, and one of the only people who understood the pain she felt after losing her entire planet, but only a friend.

Lena is also her friend, but as Kara wakes her brain up enough to reciprocate the kiss, she starts to wonder if maybe she’s more than that. Kara thinks back to all the time she spent around Lena — the way she’d get tongue tied around her, the way her heart sped up and skipped a beat when Lena smiled at her, the way it was so, so easy to laugh around her. Kara had chalked up these feelings to simple admiration for a beautiful, smart, powerful woman, but with Lena kissing her like this in her office, Kara knows that it has always been more.

It’s Lena that pulls away first. She watches the way Kara blinks, the way her her breath is coming out in short bursts. Kara watches how Lena seems to pull herself together and her expression goes from somewhat dazed to filled with guilt.

“I’m sorry,” Lena says again. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm really sorry and-"

“Stop it,” Kara says gently, leaning her forehead against Lena's. “Please, please, please stop apologizing for things that you don’t need to apologize for. It doesn’t suit you at all.”

Lena lets out a breath that sounds like the beginning of a laugh. She’s looking down at her shoes and curling her fingers against her palms and it’s honestly a little jarring to see the normally put together and confident woman like this. Kara brings her hand up to Lena’s chin so that Lena will look her in the eyes. Lena looks so tired and it scared and small and Kara isn’t sure how to reconcile this person with the one she knows so well.

But she does know that with Lena looking up at her with those green eyes, a little red-rimmed and her lips slightly parted, there’s no way Kara can leave without kissing her one more time. So she does and the way Lena yelps a little shows that she’s surprised but even as she startles, her hands curl into the cape at Kara’s shoulders, pulling her in closer.

Kissing Lena feels somewhat like flying but warmer and slower. This time, Kara kisses Lena until she’s lightheaded with adrenaline and lack of air. She has to remind her hands not to grip to tightly around Lena’s waist and she has to remind her feet to stay firmly planted on the ground. But she lets herself forget everything else except the feeling of Lena’s lips on hers.

Her phone rings loudly and it startles both of them into separating. Lena’s lipstick is smudged and Kara knows she’ll find a matching shade on her own lips. She picks up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Kara! Where the hell are you?”

It’s Alex. Of course it is.

“I’m… I’m at L-Corp. I thought Lena deserved a thank you.”

And there it is: that stupid little smirk that Lena gets when she knows something that someone else doesn’t. It’s there now and it makes Kara blush because she’s certain that Alex’s definition of a thank you probably does not entail any sort of making out.

“Oh well, you’ll be happy to know that mom figured out a way to reverse engineer a cure using the virus. Mon-El is going to be okay.”

Kara lets out a relieved sigh that is followed almost immediately by a wave of guilt. She’d forgotten about Mon-El entirely and she feels like an awful friend because he had been _dying_. But he’s not anymore and Kara feels like crying with relief.

“Oh, and also, mom thinks that maybe she might be able to modify the virus to attack the white martian blood cells in J’onn’s blood to stop him from turning. So, good news all around.”

“That’s great!” Kara says with feeling and she means it. This night has altogether been too much and after the emotional rollercoaster she just went on, Kara feels like sleeping for a very long time.

“Well, I’m going home. Do you want to come over or…”

“No. I’m exhausted. As soon as I’m done here I’m going to sleep.”

“Okay, sounds good. Oh, and tell Lena thank you from me and everyone else.”

“Will do. Love you.”

“Love you.”

Kara hangs up and turns back to Lena, who is leaning comfortably against her desk. She seems a lot more put together than she had only seconds ago.

“My sister says thanks.”

Lena nods.

“I… I’m exhausted and I’m sure you are too,” Kara says. “Um, I’m going to go home, but we’ll talk?”

She says it cautiously because she’s not sure what their relationship is now. She would like to maybe go on a date with Lena, but maybe Lena doesn’t want that. Maybe she’d just needed someone to hold tonight. Are they still friends? Are they more? Kara has to take a deep breath before she lets herself panic.

“I’ll call you,” Lena replies smoothly.

Kara nods. She doesn’t want to leave, but she doesn’t really know how to stay without overstaying her welcome. She bites her lip and watches in fascination as Lena follows the movement with her eyes.

“Lena,” Kara says.

“Yes?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Lena’s eyes light up and her lips curl up into a smile.

“Please,” she says and Kara doesn’t hesitate.

She kisses her gently, the way she imagines she would after walking her home after a first date, as if they had never kissed before. She listens for the way Lena’s heart skips and feels her pulse jump under her fingertips. Lena kisses back, just as softly, just as sweetly and when Kara draws back, she sighs.

“I’ll call you,” Lena says.

Kara nods and then, with one last glance behind her she takes off into the night air.


End file.
